... Lovelier Than a Tree

With Easter looming and so many things to do this weekend, we opted for a short hike partway up the Windy Gap Trail and back down the fire road to the still-closed Deer Flats campground around Crystal Lake.

One of the things that caught our attention was the many ways that trees die and rot in the forest. Part of the natural order of things, as they live, die and then carry on their part of nature by disintegrating. In the top photo, you can see how the outer portion of a tree can slowly disappear until its core is exposed and it too begins to break down. Certainly the breakdown is accelerated by termites and other insects, until the pulp covers the ground and feeds the soil below.

In the second photo, a massive tree lies in pieces, neatly cut in half to move it out of the way. The number of holes indicate how useful it was in life to so many woodpeckers, who hammer away to attract a mate, feed on insects, or defend their territory.

What killed these trees? Fire, lightening, insects, disease, drought, road-building? Hard to say. But there is something comforting in the knowledge that they are still an important part of the forest.

Happy New Year

We got the new year started off on the right foot with a hike up Windy Gap trail in the Angeles National Forest. This trail, which starts about a half a mile from the Crystal Lake campground at 5832 feet, ascends to 7588 feet at the saddle between Mt. Islip to the west and Hawkins Ridge to the east.  The weather was incredible, warm and sunny with the temperature at 67 at our Crystal Lake departure.

We were fortunate to see bighorn sheep twice in December while hiking this area, and a large bobcat fairly close to the Crystal Lake campground. No bighorn sheep this time around, unfortunately. Not even a deer. There were only the smallest traces of snow up the trail, until we reached Windy Gap, where there still remained larger patches on the shady side heading to the Little Jimmy campground. It's usually quite a bit cooler at the gap than on the trail that's sheltered by the mountains, and yes, Windy Gap lives up to its name.

Over Christmas we bought a new camera to try on the trail, something small and light that could document and illustrate our hikes over the seasons. We're very happy with the resulting photos.